Page 62 of An Alien for Her Heart
“Varek…tell me what you mean. What does it mean when you say your core-rhythm has never sung?”
19
VAREK
This isn’t nearly the situation in which I wanted to discuss this with her. But Catherine is looking up at me with eyes that are finally showing me her soul. She wants me. She’s willing to give me a chance. I have her attention now and despite that I wish I could hide every damning thing about my species away, I owe her this.
In my broken state, she has every right to decide if she wants a male who is silent inside. And one who could potentially harm her if his core-rhythm actually awakened.
I take a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.
“Here.” I take one of her hands and press it to the center of my chest. “Here is where my song should sing.”
“Your song?”
“A vibration that awakens when we, Kari, find our true mate.”
A flicker of apprehension crosses her face. I hate that I’m the cause of it, but I force myself to continue.
“It is so rare that we believed ourselves the lost ones.”
“We?”
“Every displaced Kari.”
A shudder goes through her and I’m aware I need to find a way out of this water hole before her health deteriorates more.
“But…Zynar and Eleanor…” Her body shakes slightly and her arms tighten around me.
“His core-rhythm sang.”
There’s a moment of silence where I can almost see her mind sorting through the information.
“And that was why you had to be there? When it happened?”
I nod slightly. This is the part I didn’t want her to hear about. Not like this. She’s only just let me in. What I’m about to tell her might just push her away again. And yet, there’s an underlying urge to lay everything bare. That if she rejects me now, it will hurt less than if she did it later.
I take another deep breath before continuing. “I had to be there when my brother’s core-rhythm awakened, because it put his kahl in danger.” I pause, my gaze boring into hers. Maybe I want to see the moment she rejects me. Maybe I want to have the image burned into my brain. “The same way I will have to protect you from me.”
Catherine’s beautiful eyes are like little gems in the dark. Her brows furrow slightly, but she doesn’t say anything. I’m forced to continue.
“When our core-rhythms awaken, it heralds the start of the rut,” I begin, my voice low and strained. “It’s a primal drive, an ancient instinct that compels us Kari to claim our mates. When it takes hold, it’s all-consuming. We lose ourselves to the need to possess, to mark, to ensure that our bond is unbreakable.”
Her brow rises this time. “You have the urge to take your partner to bed?”
A strange laugh escapes my throat. “No, sura. It is much worse than that.”
“Tell me.” Her voice falls so low it whispers across the water’s surface.
“When it happens, I will mate with you repeatedly, each time more fiercely than the last. I’ll be relentless, almost feral. I won’t stop until your scent is intertwined with mine, until there’s no doubt that you belong to me and I to you completely.”
This time, she’s the one that does a strange laugh. “You say that as if you think I’m this person for you. How can I be when…when I’ve already lived a life and—”
I shudder at the vulnerability in her voice, at the pain that laces through her words. Gently, I cradle her face in my claws, tilting her chin up until our gazes meet.
“Catherine,” I breathe, pouring every ounce of my conviction into her name. “I’ve told you. I don’t care about your past, about the life you’ve lived before. All I care about is the future we can build together.”
Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears, and it takes everything in me not to press my lips to hers and take them all away. “How can you know that I’m meant for you, when we’re so…different?”